The Lord Gives… And Takes Away…

DEC. 9, 1981, 9:13 AM
FARM, FRONT OF FIRE

You are thinking this morning, o son, of life as a rhythm. Your life has a rhythm even without My intervention, but with you, as with some others, the rhythm is affected by My giving… and by My taking away or withholding. Giving is more immediately pleasurable, but the taking away often produces more spiritual growth. And this, of course, is My “bottom line”.

Five years ago this afternoon (and the day was much like this one) you lifted the body of your son Peter into the wooden box and then you conducted the service and you helped to bury that box in My earth, amidst the young pines. I had given you a black haired, black eyed son and you had him for nearly eighteen years, and he was taken away. (I didn’t initiate the taking away, but I allowed it. Peter had come close to Me on several lovely and several unlovely occasions. He was ready to come over. When the crash occurred I could have intervened, but I did not. And Peter joined Me.) But that time gave you much, you must admit.

Likewise, Matthew, another dark son, was given to you, and he is now the age of Peter at his death, and, like Peter, is causing you much pain. You know that he, too, feels pain, and that it is not his intent to bring this discomfort to you. There is great diversity to what I give… and how… matched only by the variety in what and how I take away.

You still have some doubts (though fewer as the years go by… a poetic rather than real statement) but generally you accept that what happens to you involves Me, directly or indirectly. Let Me affirm it again: EVERYTHING that happens to you has Me in it, some way or other. I work with you for your betterment. Just as you work with students and encourage their best, critique their relative failures and forgive many of their mistakes in judgment, so I do, but with a perfection that combines My Nature and endless experience. The rhythm is different with different individuals. I do not give equally or in even similar ways to all… even My chosen servants.

What I do in your life (and the lives of many) is carefully (artistically and scientifically) combined with your karma and your other past experiences… and, of course, is in constant interactions with your own choices and actions, deliberate and/or spontaneous. Know that sometimes it is you that truly asks that an apparent blessing be taken away. All that is you is not part of your conscious perception. Your spirit appears to Me, sometimes in ways counter to your mind. When psychologists study behavior and do not consider the spirit or Me they rarely can come to true conclusions. Unfortunate.